The process of painting a structure, such as the interior or exterior of a house, typically involves several separate tasks, each requiring a separate tool. For example, in painting the exterior of a house, the painter typically must first use a hand held scraping tool to scrape portions of the surfaces to be painted to remove peeling or loose old paint and prepare the surface to receive new paint. After he has prepared the surface, the painter then uses a paint can opening tool, or other prying tool, to open the paint can to begin painting. When painting the interior of a room, the painter often must use a flat head or Phillips head screwdriver to remove light switch and electrical outlet cover plates and other items attached by screws to the walls or ceilings to be painted. Finally, the painter uses a paint brush to apply the paint to the surfaces. After the paint has dried, the painter again typically uses a screwdriver with the appropriate head to reattach items, such as light switch plates, that were removed from the walls prior to painting. Thus, the process of painting typically requires that the painter have at least four or five separate tools readily available for his use: a surface scraping tool, a paint can opening tool, a flat head and/or Phillips head screwdriver, and a paint brush.
Because a painter typically uses all or most of these tools repeatedly and frequently in the course of a painting job, in order to work efficiently, he must keep these separate tools close and within convenient reach while he is working. It is both inconvenient and cumbersome for a painter to keep up with and keep within his convenient reach a scraping tool, a paint can opener, flat head and Phillips head screwdrivers, and a paint brush while he is working.
Consequently, a need exists for a single combination or multi-purpose tool that can be used to scrape a surface to prepare it for painting, to open a can of paint, to apply paint to the surfaces, and to remove or install screws and similar threaded fasteners. A need also exists for a storage holster for the multi-purpose tool that can be attached to the user's clothing for carrying the tool on his person.